Five Success Stories Where People Had No Experience At All

The modern concept of doing a business has changed immensely over the years. Entrepreneurship was not always about making a pitch deck and presenting it to investors for fund collection. Some of the most successful stories in the world of business come from men who were successfully or not so successfully doing other things before they became entrepreneurs. Most of them had little money to fund their business; hence, they had to sell their own stuff or use up their own savings. On top of that, they didn’t have mentors who could help them with their wealth of experience, and instead, they often had to learn from their own mistakes. Here are some of the most legendary businessman from whom you can learn a thing or two.

Andrew Carnegie

Neither did Andrew Carnegie have a formal education as he had dropped out of school nor had tons of experience in doing business. Most of his early years were spent doing manual jobs like working in a cotton mill and then as a telegraph messenger. However, he taught himself to read and write all by himself. Slowly, he rose to better positions at his workplace and learned things very fast. He gradually turned into a business magnate who largely shaped the steel industry in the USA. He went on to become one of the richest people in the history of the USA. He also became a philanthropist and donated large sums of money for the greater good.

John Paul DeJoria

John Paul DeJoria was not as famous as Andrew Carnegie for sure. But if we told you who he was, you would be surprised. As of now, he is a multi-billionaire, but he had humble beginnings. He first worked as a newspaper courier, a tow truck driver, and even a janitor. When he started working in the haircare industry, he met Paul Mitchell. Thus started their partnership and business venture. They started off with a $700 loan and called their company John Paul Mitchell Systems. Later on, DeJoria went on to find Patron Spirits and House Of Blues.

Harland Sanders

The face we identify with one of the largest fast food chains, KFC belongs to none other than its founder Harland Sanders. All his life, he kept doing several odd jobs – from being a fireman and working as a lawyer to selling insurance and having shares in a ferry boat company. Thereafter, he tried his hands in several other business ventures. He also found a secret chicken recipe. In 1952, at the age of 62, he found the concept of franchising, and thus, KFC was started. At 64, he sold the KFC corporation for $2 million.

Joyce Hall

Does that last name ring a bell? Joyce Hall was the founder of Hallmark Cards. It is hard to believe that he was once part of a door to door selling company which eventually became Avon Products. He didn’t have any background in making greetings cards ever. It had all started when he started selling postcards. The business got huge with time and then they added greeting cards to their business as well.

Jan Koum

Fast forward to the present day. Koum is from Ukraine where he never had any formal education, but he did teach himself the basics of computer. It was his immense talent that led Yahoo to discover him when he was only 18 — that speaks a lot about his skills. He started working as an infrastructure engineer. After that, he had immigrated to California as well. Being close to the Silicon Valley must have inspired him and showed him the potential of having one’s own app, and soon enough, he developed his own app. It became so widely used and popular that in 2014, he could sell it for $19 billion. Can you guess the name of the app? Well, it’s Whatsapp!

As you can see, all of these entrepreneurs were quite new to the concept of doing a business. Some of them tried various things to do before they found success; some didn’t have to try that hard, but nevertheless didn’t have any formal training. It just proves again that to succeed, you don’t need a whole lot of degrees – just patience and good ideas will do. We hope the stories inspire you to think out of the box and find some new ideas as well.